The Towers Lane theory deserves its own attention

Of the three, the second is the one with implications beyond its parties. The argument is that Delaware's manufactured-home protections do not apply because the new owners never collected rent or signed leases — so there is no tenancy for Chapter 70 to govern, and the residents can be ejected as occupants rather than evicted as tenants.

If that succeeds, it is a route around the whole chapter: the notice periods, the cure windows, the rent-justification machinery, the relocation trust fund. Not by amending anything, but by never creating the relationship the chapter attaches to.

The report describes the community as unregistered, which is the enabling condition. Delaware's Manufactured Home Relocation Authority maintains a registry and, as of December 2025, adopted a policy of delisting non-compliant homeowners associations from its website. Registration is how the state knows a community exists.

Delaware courts have twice held recently that a resident's legal position determines the protection available. Chancery held in January 2026 that a resident who is neither the titled homeowner nor the leaseholder cannot invoke § 7018(b) or § 7019 at all. A Justice of the Peace panel held in October 2025 that a tenancy must be proved, and that partial electricity payments among family-adjacent parties did not create one. The Towers Lane theory runs the same logic in the community owner's favour.

We found no decision in that case, and its trial was set for summer 2026.

Where the fund's money now comes from

The deficit was addressed, and the mechanism is worth understanding because it came out of the other fund residents rely on.

From January 1, 2026, the entire $1.50 monthly per-lot assessment is redirected to this fund, and the community owner's portion is credited to zero. Before that, 50 cents went here. The relocation trust fund now receives nothing from the assessment at all.

Tripling this fund's income addresses a documented shortfall. It also funds legal representation out of what previously funded relocation payments — and the relocation benefit is itself under argument, with a working group convened on raising a $12,000 cap that residents on fixed incomes say is too low.

The narrow statutory role in rent cases

Boards and resident groups should know the limit here, because it is tighter than “legal aid for manufactured-home residents” suggests.

Under § 7046(b)(8), the fund covers challenging a rent increase only where:

• the proposed increase is 3% or more above the CPI-U, and
• it is requested by a homeowners association representing at least 25% of homeowners, or by a simple majority of noticed homeowners

That is a coordination requirement inside a 30-day petition window, following 90 days' notice. It is one plausible explanation for why Delaware certified 56 rent increases in March 2026 alone and scheduled one arbitration all year — the first in three years.

The fund's other work — evictions, lease transfers, defaults, conditions — carries no such threshold, which is where most of the 211 cases sit.

What this means for a resident

Representation exists and it is free. CLASI is the state's contractor. On the year's figures, 211 cases were worked for under $100,000, which means the barrier is not cost.

Act on the notice, not on the outcome. The 72% case settled at $10 a month, and the default judgment was vacated. Both were reversible because someone got involved in time.

The newest tool is very recent. A right of redemption at 25 Del. C. § 5716A, in force since September 1, 2026, lets a tenant facing summary possession for unpaid rent redeem by tendering court-determined arrears “at any time before the actual execution of the eviction order.” It applies to a lot in a manufactured home community by name, and it is unavailable to a tenant with two such judgments in the past 18 months.

What to watch next

The FY2026 report is due October 1, 2026 and is not yet published. It is the document that will show whether the January 2026 redirect closed the deficit, and whether case volume moved after the September 2025 statutory changes to lease transfers and inheritance.

Watch also for a decision in the Towers Lane matter. On the record we could reach, it is the most consequential unresolved question in Delaware manufactured-housing law — and no Delaware outlet has reported on it.